Police charge grandfather in Stemmers Run gun incident

School communities remain on edge after gun incidents

Superintendent Dance holds a meeting with parents about school safety.

Police charge grandfather in Stemmers Run gun incident

School communities remain on edge after gun incidents

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Updated: 7:22 AM EDT Sep 13, 2012

ESSEX, Md. —

Baltimore County police have charged the grandfather of a boy who investigators said brought a semi-automatic handgun to school, pointing it at others.

Court documents obtained by WBAL-TV 11 News detail the circumstances of Tuesday's gun incident at a Baltimore County middle school and how the student got the weapon. A 13-year-old student brought a .25-caliber Galesi semi-automatic handgun to Stemmers Run Middle School in Essex. County Police Chief Jim Johnson said the gun was small enough to fit inside the palm of a hand.

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The court documents describe in greater detail what investigators believe transpired late Tuesday morning when the student brandished the gun in class and a teacher diffused a dangerous situation. The documents state that the teacher, identified as Ms. Fuchs, noticed the student wasn't working on his assignment.

According to the court documents, Fuchs then approached the student and saw the student point a gun at her from about 3-4 feet away. Ms. Fuchs told the boy to put the gun down and told another student to get another teacher, the court documents state.

"At that point, the student pointed the gun at rows of students closest to the door and no one got out of their seats," the court document reads. "The student raised the gun to his own head at that point and Ms. Fuchs knocked the gun out of his hand and onto the floor."

The court document corroborates what officials said Tuesday afternoon that the gun's magazine broke, and pieces of it fell apart. A school resource officer detained the student, who was taken to the Essex police precinct, where the boy told police that he took the handgun from his grandfather's possession, according to the court documents.

The documents say the boy told police he knew where to get the gun because he saw his grandfather, Norman James Gatewood, put the gun between his mattress and box spring. The boy claimed the gun had a magazine containing bullets and that he chambered a round by moving the slide atop the gun, the court documents indicated.

Gatewood confirmed that the gun was stored in his bed, but he told police that the magazine was not loaded into the handgun, the court documents state. Instead, according to the court documents, Gatewood said the magazine and gun were placed next to each other inside the bed.

"Gatewood told detectives that he knew he should have had the gun locked up," the court documents state.

Police charged Gatewood with firearms access by minors, as it's illegal to keep a gun unsecured with minors present. The charge carries a $1,000 fine, if convicted.

Gatewood also admitted to owning a second gun -- a Ruger MKII .22-caliber handgun -- that is stored in a lockbox.

Parents, students and staff at schools in Baltimore County remain on edge after the district's second gun-related incident in three weeks. Many parents said Wednesday that they support a plan to issue handheld metal detectors to Baltimore County school resource police officers to scan for guns or other weapons.

"I think it would be a good, useful thing to do to keep everybody safe," said Keon Jackson, a parent.

Police said the devices will be used only in cases in which there is probable cause to believe a crime is about to take place.

"I think it should have been in effect from the beginning. I think it's an awesome idea. A lot of what's going on would be diverted if there was a stronger (security) presence," said Charissa Stumpf, a parent.

"It's very sad that it has come to this, but the safety of our children should be the top priority everywhere. You know? They don't hesitate to put speed cameras in front of schools, but yet kids are bringing handguns to school," said Amy Thomas, a parent.

Dallas Dance, the county's new schools superintendent, said that while he supports extra security measures like metal detectors, he'll continue to work on a plan of his own.

"I've not said 'yes,' I've not said 'no' to metal detectors. What I've said, though, is that there have been several school incidents around our country where metal detectors have been in place and have not prevented an incident," Dance said.

Some Essex parents said they've already seen the benefits of metal detectors at their schools.

"I definitely know from experience that nobody brought guns and stuff to school. We never had this problem. And I went to a city school, not a county school," said Brittany Roby, a parent.

Besides increased security, school officials said they're committed to ensuring teachers and administrators are trained to deal with similar potentially dangerous incidents.